So, Avalon is laying on the floor all rolled up in her blanket. She says, “My hands STINK!”
A few seconds later, “They stink like….Lava!” “Mom, why do you love lava?”
(What????)

Talia has a mean army crawl and is eating EVERY. LITTLE. THING. off of the floor. I may need to start vacuuming and sweeping every day. Not my idea of fun, that is for sure.

Reed has learned how to snap his fingers and walks around all day snapping them.

Ivan and his friend had a lemonade stand and raked in over $40 in two days. He’s looking forward to summer.

Calvin is taking Karate and will soon have his yellow belt. He loves to swing his foam nun chuks all around. (Which can be quite obnoxious at times!) He is also building a website which I will share with you soon.

John is busy having fun and working hard at his Cubmaster calling. This week we are doing a service project picking up trash and helping some widows in the ward with yard work.

I have just built four 6×3 garden boxes for my up and coming square foot garden. Hopefully I’ll get some pics up soon. (If I can figure out how to post them. We “upgraded” to the new wordpress and I can’t do ANYTHING. This post may not even happen.

Happy Spring!

Saturday we celebrated Avy’s 4th Birthday. The girls kicked the boys out and we had a fun tea party with our friends. Grandma Pratt had some authentic tea cups and plates that came from Japan, England, and USA. The cute pink set is actually Aunt Julie’s. (Thank you, Aunt Julie!) It was adorable and the little girls LOVED pouring the “tea” (white grape juice.) We had herbal tea, too, which some of them liked as well. The girls were adorable in their fancy dresses and up-do’s. Check out this digital scrapbook if you have a few minutes and want to see the happenings.

This scrapbooking design generated with Smilebox

Tonight Calvin and Ivan almost had a knock-down-drag-out fight over who was taking too much broccoli. They love it that much. Earlier, Reed had been excused from the meal (due to misbehavior). When he got back to the table he cried because there wasn’t any left for him. I had about three pieces and John didn’t get any. Avalon ate a ton, too.

All I do is saute the broccoli in butter, add salt and pepper. Sometimes I throw in some fresh chopped garlic. So easy and tasty. I still can’t believe they were physically fighting over it! I thought we were going to have dishes all over the floor! (By the way, they were excused, too. Fighting over broccoli is just unacceptable.)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

These pictures were taken on Talia’s half birthday.  Yes, Talia is 6 months old!  Where does the time go?  Avalon ALWAYS wants to match Talia.  She often chooses similar outfits for them both.  This day was no exception.  I did make them matching skirts, so that makes it a little easier.

I’m not sure what was so funny, but we got a kick out of this photo.

Twinners!

 

 

 

 

 

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Reed, Avalon and I are a little under the weather today.  So, we stayed home from church.  I really need to sleep, but Talia has other ideas.  So, I thought I would catch up on the blog a little.  Avalon also wanted to dress Talia up, even though we weren’t going anywhere.  So, we took some fun Valentine photos.  And, there were so many cute ones, I thought it would be easier to view in a slide show.  I love Smilebox!  Maybe I should actually pay for a membership one of these days.  Ha!

Do you think Talia’s eyes will stay blue?  We’ll know in a few more months.  But, chances are slim….

Click HERE for a Valentine’s Day Slide Show

We often get strangers coming up to us saying how beautiful Talia is.  Often they say that she looks just like a porcelain doll.  It’s all the hair!  One mom said, when I first saw you, I thought you were carrying around a doll!  But, no.  It is a baby.  A baby who struggles to sleep, but is full of smiles and love.  A baby who is experiencing some major separation anxiety.  A baby who rolls all over the floor.  She will not stay put on a blanket.  She loves to roll and around and explore.  One minute she is happily playing on her blanket and the next minute she is crying because she has rolled under the piano and is now wedged.  Too cute!  This is our little Talia and we love her.

I made a little video.  I put “Talia 4 months” as the title, but really, it should say “Talia 5 Months.”  My sleep deprived brain isn’t working too well.  We took these photos last month when Talia was 5 months.  Now she is 6 months old.  I’ll get some new pics up soon.  Better late than never, though, right?

Click on the pink link below for the video.

Talia 5 Months

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, Avalon is SO excited to be in Primary now.  She is a sunbeam and loves to sing the songs and be a big girl.  And, she surely is growing up.  Look how adorable she is!  Before I know it she will be 16 and dating.  Yikes!  Love that sweetie!

Sister Love

A new hair do every day.  I think she just had a bath here.

Talia is a happy baby.  Full of smiles and sunshine.

 

Talia has also taken to babbling the last couple of days.  She is so cute and seems so serious in trying to communicate.  It is precious.

 

 

 

First, I have only one picture from Christmas.  Here are the girls with Grandpa Pratt.   I love that Avy’s face is smeared with chocolate.  I couldn’t get a picture with all three looking at the camera.  Oh well…

 

Now, the rest of these photos were taken on the 27th, I think.  Somehow the date on the camera reverted back to January of 2003.  Not so, fair reader.  We have since fixed the camera settings….

Here are a few shots of our dear sweet Talia Marie.  She is such a cutie and delight in our family.  I just love her!

I wanted you to take note of how long her hair is getting.  It just keeps GROWING!!   It now gets in her eyes if I don’t take special precautions to keep it out.

Look how long it is in the back!!

So, I am constantly swiping it out of her face.  I need to get some little clips that will hold it back better.

This is a constant site in our house as Talia is often being loved by her big sister.

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Well,  I hope you have enjoyed these pics of our littlest angel.  May you all have a wonderful and Happy New Year!  Here’s to 2012.  May it be a year filled with goodness and love.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

Our dear Brother, Son, Cousin, Father, John Pratt, is soon to pass over to the other side.  He practically has one foot in the grave already.  Poor John is (almost) dead.

John Calvin Pratt turns 40 this Saturday and we are gathering to mourn and offer our condolences.

Services will be held as follows:

Saturday, November 5th, 2011.

We will gather at 4:30 and the “ward” will be providing the dinner at 5pm.

If you would like to help with our dinner, the following items are needed:

Salad/dressing

Jello Salad

9×13 Cake, any flavor

Funeral Potatoes

 

In lieu of flowers, a special trust fund has been set up at the Bank of _________.  (Not!–just thought that would be funny to write.)

Sympathy Cards and wearing black in honor of the soon to be deceased would be appropriate.

We hope to see you on Saturday to “celebrate” the life of our dear John.

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This was the obituary (invitation) I sent out to our nearby family.

Yep.  John turned 40 last month.  We had a wonderful celebration of his life.  Actually, it was more of a fun family get together with great food.  Grandma Pratt was there, as well as Michael & Mary (and family), and Joe & Elizabeth (and family.)  Also, John’s cousin, Michael, and his family attended as well.  We forgot to get out the camera earlier, so we only caught a few folks in pics.

 

John and Michael with Mary’s beautiful R.I.P. card.

 

This little wonder was so adorable toddling all over my house.

 

 

 

One of the appropriate gifts John received.  He’s going to need these soon!

 

The kids enjoyed a rousing game of “pin the pterodactyl in the sky.”

 

Jello salad–of course.

 

What’s left of the ham….

 

These were the star of the show.  Kelly (Michael’s wife) made THE BEST funeral potatoes.  Yum!

 

Well, John handled everything very well.  He wasn’t expecting us all to show up wearing black and to totally make fun of his age, but he handled it gracefully.  We had a wonderful evening with our family.

Thanks, John, for being a fantastic and loving father, son, cousin, friend, and husband.

We love you!